THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
and Don Bosco himself tells that when he picked up destitute boys on the streets of Turin "some kind ladies of rank charitably clothed these wretched youths, while rich young people interested in our work, sought employment for them in different manufactories and shops, and were successful in placing a great number." To all these earnest laborers united in the cause of charity for the glory of God, Don Bosco gave a prudent and pious rule of life, and obtained for them many spiritual privileges.
The saintly founder was pre-eminently an organizer; and as his works expanded bringing with them a great accumulation of expenditures, he drew together, by the magnetism of his words and personality, a multitude of men and women (anyone over sixteen was eligible for membership) and established the Society of Salesian Co-operators. The rule just alluded to was remodeled in order to meet the rising exigencies, and to aid more effectually in the sanctification of these new sons and daughters of Don Bosco. "To be Good in Themselves and to Do Good to Others"—this was the motto he inscribed in shining letters on the standard he raised before this solid phalanx of volunteers, this noble spiritual company of men and women of the world, when he formulated for them in 1858 the final code of rules.
"To be good according to the spirit of the Salesian Co-operators", declares the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna, "is to be good according to the
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